This invention relates to a finishing station for a reproducing machine and in particular to a station which includes a collating sorter for individual copy sheets, a device for finishing or securing in a finished set the individual sheets of a collated set and a means of collecting the individual finished collated sets.
This invention is particularly adapted for use with an automatic copying machine wherein reproduction of multipage original documents or sets are made by sequentially making the desired number of copies of the first page in the set, collecting the copies in individual trays or bins and thereafter sequentially making the desired number of copies of the second and subsequent pages of the set.
With the continued development of the xerographic reproduction apparatus including those capable of operating at higher speeds it has become desirable to automatically process or handle the copies produced from the machine. The desire has been particularly felt for obtaining fully collated and finished sets of copies from a collated original set of several pages. Traditionally there have been two ways of achieving this result.
The finished collated sets may be made as a set one at a time by copying each page of the original only once and collecting the copies produced from the reproducing machine. For each copy of a collated set desired the original pages of the set are sequentially copied and the individual copies collected. If performed manually this is a very laborious and time consuming procedure. To facilitate this type of copying, automatic or semi automatic devices for handling or transporting the individual sheets of the original set onto and back off of the imaging platen have been used. While these document handlers may minimize the need for operator involvement they are typically rather costly and complex to maintain for efficient operation. They also suffer the disadvantage in that each time an original document is physically handled by some mechanical device the possibility of damage to the original document exists. Furthermore with some devices the cumulative effect of repeated handling of a document for each copy that is desired may result in the increased probability of damage to the original for each successive handling.
The second way of obtaining collated sets of multipage original documents is to make the total desired number of copies of each page at the same time and collect them in individual collecting bins. Thus if ten copies of a five page original set are desired, the first page of the original set is placed on the platen and ten copies of it are made, each copy being delivered to a collecting device which typically comprises an array of bins connected to the output end of a reproducing machine. Thereafter ten copies each of pages two thru five are made and the copies collected in the bins.
The next step in the development of the use of the xerographic process was the desire to finish the collated sets by stapling, stitching, binding, etc. the individual sheets. For this process the collated sets have typically been physically removed from the bins and transported to the finishing device. Initially the collated sets were manually removed from the collecting bins by the operator. Subsequently mechanical devices were devised to physically move the collated sets from the bins. With both of these techniques the possibility of the collated sets being presented to the finishing station with the individual sheets in the set not in perfect registration exists. Indeed, it is almost inevitable that some jogging of the collated set to obtain registration along at least one edge is necessary. In addition, with multisheet sets the probability of one of more sheets being out of registration is increased with the number of sheets in the set. In view of these difficulties there continues to be a desire to collect the individual sheets in the collecting bins, register the sheets in the bins and finish the sheets in the bins without human interference.